The view this evening in Tokyo's Shinjuku district; that's Mt. Fuji in the background.

I can’t begin to describe how excited I am to be visiting Tokyo
while the Japanese yen is at its all-time, historic high. My timing
couldn’t possibly be worse.

For reasons that are completely incomprehensible, the yen is still
viewed as a stable ‘safe haven’ currency despite four completely
hopeless black marks:

1) Japan’s public debt puts other bankrupt nations to shame. As a percentage of GDP (225%), Japan’s debt is more than twice as bad as the United States.

2) The political situation in Japan is anything BUT stable. Japan has blown through 6 prime ministers and 9 finance ministers since 2006. And every one of them was a failure.

3) Social demographics are a ticking time bomb.
Both life expectancy AND average age in Japan are higher than just
about anywhere else on the planet… and the country has neither the work
force nor the financial resources to support the massive waves of
retirees that are coming.